"Unloaded and disassembled guns locked in your trunk are of no use when a rapist is attacking your family," said Don Tatro, spokesman for Sen. Coburn.

According to the International Herald Tribune, the amendment, co-sponsored by John McCain, is holding up an otherwise non-controversial public lands bill.

"There is simply no legitimate or substantive reason for a thoughtful sportsman or gun owner to carry a loaded gun in a national park unless that park permits hunting," stated a coalition of park rangers and park service retirees.

"If you're hiking in the backcountry and there is a problem with a criminal or an aggressive animal, there's no 911 box where you can call police and have a 60-second response time," said Gary S. Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Assn.

"Parks have long been sanctuaries for both animals and people," said Butch Farabee, a former acting superintendent at Montana's Glacier National Park, and author of Death in Yosemite. "There need to be places in this country where people can feel secure without guns and know that the guy in the campground across the way does not have one."

Senator Diane Feinstein doesn't like the idea. “Changing these regulations would invite poaching, be very difficult to understand and enforce, and put the public at serious risk," she told allamericanpatriots.com.

Bill Becher for the New York Times... Joe went out on the ice first. No sounds. He hammered on it with the butt of his hockey stick. “This is good,” he shouted. And so we followed, shuffling our way across to where we could sit and put on skates. Fish darted beneath the clear ice along the shore—big fish, rainbows. “This is four or five inches thick,” said Joe. “You could drive a car on this.”